Kings, Queens, and Other Means
by Devin Trinidad
Summary: Five likes to play chess...only when he doesn't have to play against his siblings. (Pre-TVseries)


Number Five was smart.

He knew it, his siblings knew it, but most importantly, his father knew it too. Unfortunately, knowing wasn't the same as acknowledging. As much as Five loathed the old man's methods, he thought that he could convince him that his calculations were correct and that he could try time traveling. In the end, space and time were just about the same, so why not try it out now? All was in vain, though; all the equations that he had written on spare paper and notebooks were confiscated once Pogo and dear old Dad caught wind of his theories.

In his father's words, he simply was not ready for anything beyond spatial jumping.

After a heated argument in the middle of one of his private sessions with his father, Five practically set off a bomb in his father's usually stoic self. There was nothing that could be done, except for one small thing.

Punishment.

The thing was, Five was more than aware of what kinds of punishment his father could do. For Klaus, it was staying in the mausoleum even though he was deathly afraid for his life and of the ghosts. For Vanya, it was isolating her from the rest of her siblings under the pretence that she was sick and in need of that damned medication. For Five...he hoped that it would be something not too groundbreaking or overwhelming—he would much rather keep his sanity under wraps, thank you very much.

Five was not ready for the sort of punishment that his father had in mind for him.

As consequence for even thinking about jumping through time, their father decided that Five should undergo team building exercises to make him realize that he was part of a whole—not an independent cog in the works.

At first, Five had thought that it would mean some sort of trust fall or whatever inane thing that was supposed to make him feel those stupid, sappy things that were to breed positive emotions and feelings of familial love. Or whatever.

The thing was…

It was…

Chess.

Five had groaned at that choice in game, but his father forced him to do it.

It wasn't like he didn't know how to play chess (their benefactor had them playing it when they were still nothing but toddlers), it was just that he was still better at it than his siblings. In fact, he was the best at it! Simply put, if he considered himself a prodigy with his mathematical and spatial skills, then it stood to reason that he was a god at chess.

Every piece had purpose. Every move had a finite amount of possible moves and outcomes. In the time that it took for his opponent to place their piece down onto the board, Five would have already calculated his chances of winning. (Most of the time, it was at a full one hundred percent). Five didn't want to brag, but he was damn good at the game.

Okay. So maybe he was bragging just a _little _bit.

Hence the reason why their father wanted him to have matches against his siblings. It was to help foster a sense of relationship within the team. (Five learned that there was no sense in having independent thinking since they were supposedly all under One's command). That way, he was going to think less of himself as an independent asset and start thinking of himself as part of a whole. Regardless of how much time he knew he was going to waste, Five had no choice but to follow orders.

The matches were set up in a series of desks. Five would move about the desks while his siblings would get to sit down at their numbered seats. He would start with Number One and once he played his turn, Five would slam his side of the timer and go to the next station to go against Number Two. Then Three. Then Four. And so forth in a relentless circle that was sure to run him ragged.

There was one rule that had Five gnashing his teeth and his eyes to look forever angry. No one should go over the time limit of their timers. If someone took too long on their slice of the board, only Five would get punished. The activity was born for the end to keep and strengthen relationships, but it just felt like a waste of time. Only Six had the slightest inkling of how to play the game.

Even Seven, if she were allowed to play, would have been better than…Number One.

When the game had just begun, One had immediately played his knight on the first move. It was bold and had Five questioning how the tall blond had known how to play. (He definitely did not practice in years). It was obvious from the start that One was going to play offensively. It was rather sad that after only one move Five could already have the gist of how the game would play out.

The same could be said for both Two and Three. Like One, Two played to win, but his main objective, above all else, was to keep the majority of his pieces alive. Two didn't like undue bloodshed, even though it was just a game. In the end, that was the cause of his downfall. On the other hand, Three was manipulative in real life, but not so much in the game. If anything, the dark haired beauty opted to submissively surrender; she threw the game after the first three moves.

All in all, the first half of the family were so predictable. Five almost felt compelled to allow one of them to win. Then, he would remember his name was Five and he gladly demolished all three of them within five minutes. Not too bad, but not fast enough.

It was the last two opponents that gave Five pause in his abilities. At first, Five thought that Klaus would throw the game immediately. Chess was a game that needed patience and focus in order to play; it was a known fact that Klaus had none. However, the longer Five played against Klaus, the longer it took for him to realize that his dear brother was cheating.

Yes, he was cheating, but not in the traditional sense.

Over the course of several turns, whenever it was Klaus' turn, he would gaze at a point beyond Five's shoulder or he would cant his head to the side as if were listening to something or someone. Sometimes, Klaus would grumble was then that Five let Klaus know that he wasn't playing fair.

Five put Klaus under checkmate. "Good game, but you were cheating the entire time."

A toothy grin and a wave towards whichever ghost was aiding Klaus. "Glad you noticed! Gertrude would like to thank you for such a good game."

And then, there was Ben.

Although Ben was easily one of the most well read of the Hargreeves children, he still couldn't beat Five when it came to math. However, that didn't mean he would calmly surrender to Five. Oh no. He would give Five a run for his money.

Ben's moves were fairly straightforward until…it wasn't.

Ben had a strategy, probably something that he had picked up from his readings, and that strategy was that he had no strategy at all. Some moves confused Five, as if he wasn't trying at all. Then, in a flash, Ben would end up taking a queen and crowning all of his pawns as they passed onto the last line of defense. In what appeared to be no time at all, Ben had beaten Five to a checkmate.

Once the entire fiasco was over, their benefactor forced Five to clean up all the chess boards and pieces to their appropriate places. Normally, Ben would have stayed behind to help, but an extra scary glare from their father forced him to retreat. In affect, Five was alone and he was still somewhat pissed that he wasted almost an hour of training playing chess. Perhaps he should have forfeited all of the matches. That way, he would have played by the rules and still have held up a middle finger to Papa Hargreeves.

Oh, well.

Upon returning to his bedroom, he noticed several peculiarities. One, Vanya was in his room. Two, on his desk, there was a board, but instead of chess pieces, there were checkers. Three, Vanya was smiling at him and he felt all his stress fall way. That…last one was not as peculiarly weird as the rest. It was more of a common occurence—not that he would tell anyone about that.

"Mind telling me why you decided to go into my room?" He glanced and asked, "Uninvited?"

Vanya tried to shrug like nothing was bothering her.

"Does it really matter?" When Vanya caught sight of Five's pointed glance at the board, she scowled. "All right fine. You guys seemed like you were having fun and I wanted to…you know…?" Her statement ended with a sort of question, but Five was already sitting at his desk, his eyes glued to the board.

"Just so you know, I was not having fun."

Vanya laughed as she spun around in the chair at Five's desk. "Try to convince me otherwise, Five. I saw you smile that stupid grin of yours after you beat everybody."

"Almost everyone. Ben really got me there at the end." Five shook his head ruefully. "Still, four of five isn't too bad."

"Make that four of six." Vanya twirled one of those small disks that were part of the checkers game. "Don't get too cocky now."

Although Five was tired from playing against five other people, he nodded. After all, he needed to win back his pride.

"You're on."

Five doesn't think Vanya knows this, but when she played, her true feelings and emotions were on full display. Perhaps it was because of her medication, but she always seemed subdued and down. Here, her anxiety and stress over being the only normal child seemed to fade away. As she tried in vain to conquer him via the checkers, he felt honored that he was allowed to see his sister so open to him.

It was a satisfactory feeling that did not fade, even when she triumphantly cleared the board with one of her pieces.

"You were right—" He gestured to the board with pride. "—four of six isn't too bad…That's like sixty seven percent."

"Am I any better?"

"From the last time we played?" Five took a second of feigned thinking before answering. "Of course."

He helped her clean up and offered to help take them back to where the board belonged. She nodded and with great enjoyment, both children raced each other down the stairs and where they almost bowled over Diego and Mom.

And, despite it all, Five in fact did feel like he had been successful in tying himself to the group more.

Just not the way his father had planned.


End file.
